Falling For the First Time
by flipomatic
Summary: The thought that he was kind of cute was the first thing to flash through Kuriyama Mirai's mind as she received the picture. She quickly squashed the notion; youmu weren't cute, especially immortal ones that were half-human. Even though Kanbara Akihito was the only member of that category, he was no exception to the rule. Akirai, one-shot


Author Note: My first, and probably my only, Kyoukai no Kanata fic. Akirai

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><p>The thought that he was kind of cute was the first thing to flash through Kuriyama Mirai's mind when Izumi sent her the picture. She quickly squashed the notion; youmu weren't cute, especially immortal ones that were half-human. Even though Kanbara Akihito was the only member of that category, he was no exception to the rule. He looked so different in his human form though, he could even be a different person from the projection she saw before.<p>

Anyway, she ended up enrolling at his school to keep an eye on him. For a little while she merely watched from afar, making sure he didn't notice her spying. It wasn't until one fateful day on the roof when she finally made contact.

Mirai was originally going to follow him after school that day, and went up to the roof to wait for him to leave. He usually left about an hour after school ended, having spent some time first at his club activities. But this day he didn't appear at the usual time today.

After two hours of waiting, Mirai was about ready to give up for the day. In her boredom stood up on a ledge on the outside of the school fence. Though it was designed to keep kids from falling off the roof, the chained links only ended up obstructing her vision of the space around the school.

At the precise moment her target left the school she was staring off into space. She didn't notice as he charged back into the building. Only when someone called her from behind did Mirai snap out of her daze. Some kid was yelling at her about not killing herself and some nonsense about glasses. He thought she was committing suicide?

The idea seemed foreign to her; suicide would be too easy of a way out.

She glanced over one shoulder slowly, withholding a gasp at just who came to 'save' her. The target himself walked right into a trap of his own making. He was just as cute in person, though the shades of desperation in his eyes cast a whole new light on him.

Mirai leapt up over the fence, summoning her sword as she landed in front of him. Akihito stared down at her in shock, probably astonished that a person could jump so far. Her hair fluttered in the wind for a brief moment. She tightened her hand around the weapon.

The sword remained in place for a heartbeat longer before lunging forward and settling half way through his chest. His eyes widened as he grasped at the weapon, not fainting or dying as a normal person would. He stayed on his feet, a strained look on his face. He asked her to remove the sword, and Mirai gasped in surprise.

After exchanging a few words with him, she removed the sword from his damaged chest and returned it to her bloodstream. Akihito sat down on the ground to rest and Mirai took that moment to escape. He called after her as she fled, but she didn't stop or look back.

She made it all the way back to her apartment before she allowed herself to relax. How did the Nase family expect her to kill him, she wondered. If he truly was immortal, then there would be no way. Not to mention that he didn't seem like a very harmful person.

He didn't defend himself against her attack or even try to attack her back. She wouldn't have had the chance to get him if he hadn't tried to stop her from jumping off the school building. Mirai couldn't let herself pass judgment here; even if he was a nice person he was still a danger to the whole world. Beyond the Boundary had to die.

Steeling her resolve, Mirai pledged to attack him again the next day. Maybe if he died enough times, he would eventually run out of regenerations.

This turned out to be false. She stabbed him through once every day for the next few days and his regeneration speed did not change in the slightest. During those battles he introduced himself, though she already knew his name, and she introduced herself in return. Since he was a year older than her, he said she should call him senpai.

If she had to think back, that was the moment where everything changed. He was no longer the half youmu who had to die in order to save the world, but Kanbara-senpai who was less clumsy than her in many ways and just happened to be half youmu. As her senpai, she had to say she found him very unpleasant.

His attitude got on her nerves, though she couldn't blame him for being snippy. If somebody kept trying to kill her she would also be upset.

But after a week of chasing him, she realized that stabbing him over and over again was not the answer. Her blood could do a few other unpleasant things to the human body, but if stabbing didn't kill him than it was unlikely anything else would fair better.

She also found, after a week, that it was getting hard to raise her weapon to him. Especially after he bought her dinner one night. As Mirai had her first real conversation with him her head filled once again with doubts. He even helped her kill a small youmu that was plaguing her apartment. This boy, who liked glasses and literature and life, couldn't possibly destroy the world.

When Mirai met with Izumi a few days later, she didn't bring up these thoughts. She only mentioned that he couldn't be killed by conventional methods. The pair agreed to bide their time. But while they waited, Izumi said something startling.

"Keep your distance from Kanbara."

Mirai nodded in agreement, but wondered if she really could at this point. She turned down his invitation to the club, but he just asked again. She told him to leave her alone, but he refused. She told him to let her go fight and die alone, but he followed anyway.

He saved her from herself, not letting her hide away anymore. Akihito acted as a beacon of light guiding Mirai out of the darkness. He was nice to her, treated her like a normal person, and was someone she could trust. She only hoped she could be all those things for him in return.

So even when his youmu side rampaged and one good blow would have killed him for good, she couldn't do it. All she could do was wrap her arms around him and pray.

It was too late to kill him now.

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><p>End Note: Thanks for reading.<p> 


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